All posts tagged ‘Puerto Rico’

Settlers of Catan has introduced millions of people worldwide to the joys of quality board games. But eventually, even a near perfect board game runs its course, and now, addicted board gamers need to find a new game to play. For those who are new to board games, a simple trip to the game store can be overwhelming and confusing. Yesterday, I talked about three different ways to find out about board games, and before I move on to today’s topic, I need to cover one clear oversight on my part.

Among the online means of learning about board games, I did not mention the board game equivalent to Reddit — Boardgamegeek.com. Mea Culpa! This is a trove of board game information unlike any other on the internet. If it is information you need, then this is the place to go.

However, there are times in the age of the internet when we don’t actually need more information. What we need are fewer choices. So as promised, here is a list of games I like, plus a few others as well. It is neither comprehensive or complete, nor is it completely organized. Not all of them are classics either. Some of these are quite new, and I believe one may even be out of print. (Sorry about that! I couldn’t resist.)

The hope is to shrink the size of the game store and allow a person new to board games a place to start. After trying or purchasing a number of games on this list, you can develop your own tastes and start to have an idea of what you want when you walk in the doors of your local game shop.

Lately I’ve been trying to play a little less Tiny Tower on my iPad and trying to actually interact with other people when I’m using it. (When I’m not getting sucked into Book of Heroes, that is.) One of my favorite ways to do that, of course, is board games. When I can’t get a bunch of people physically together to play a board game, it’s nice to have the option of playing digitally — plus, I love getting to play games with folks who are in different parts of the world, people who I don’t see face-to-face much at all (if ever). If you’re a board gamer with an iPad, there are a lot of apps worth checking out. Here’s just a few I’ve been checking out lately. (Note: all apps work for iPhone and iPad unless otherwise noted below.)

Playing Carcassonne against fellow GeekDad writers!

Carcassonne – $9.99, plus in-app expansions for $.99 and $2.99

As I said, there are a lot of board game apps in the iTunes store, and more seem to be coming all the time. But for me, Carcassonne is still the gold standard for board game apps. (It helps that it was one of my gateway games and I’ve always enjoyed playing it — your mileage may vary.) TheCodingMonkeys did a fantastic job making the interface easy to play, and their asynchronous multiplayer option is second to none. You get alerts when it’s your turn, and tapping on that takes you directly into the game, showing you all the previous moves. Plus it has a built-in chat function, which is great for trash talking your fellow players.

We’ve already reviewed it here at GeekDad (plus you’ll probably get an in-depth look at the new expansions, The River and Inns & Cathedrals), but after all the board game apps I’ve played, this is still at the top of my list. It gets more plays than pretty much any of my other board game apps, and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. The two new expansions, available as in-app purchases, are well worth it to add new depths of strategy to the game. Is it pricey? In terms of many apps, yes, it costs a bit more. But if you like the board game version, this is a superb implementation of it.